A mile wide but often an inch deep

Over the course of Semester 1, our Director of Teaching and Learning, Mr Robert Marshall, in conjunction with our seven Heads of Faculty has undertaken a review of the academic programs offered in the Senior School. In conducting the review, the Committee assessed the School’s offerings and pathways to our VCE programs with the view to maximising opportunities in Year 10 for a smooth transition to Year 11. Currently, this transition is often seen as a large step up in workload and rigour. Ultimately, we must best enable girls to have the maximum amount of choices when they leave St Catherine’s.

I had the opportunity last year to hear a presentation by Professor Andreas Schleicher, the Director of Education and Skills and Special Advisor on Education Policy to the Secretary-General of the OECD. Schleicher was able to draw on an extraordinary level of data gathered across the globe using a range of assessment tools including the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) and the Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS). Schleicher provided a wealth of research comparing the academic performance, student resilience, teacher perception, class size, productivity and career aspirations of students in over 70 different countries.

The PISA Test is an international survey held every three years that pits the world’s education systems against each other by testing the performance of 15 year olds. Schleicher suggests this particular test can help understand why some countries perform better than others and help explain the declining scores evident in recent years in Australia.

Schleicher’s biggest criticism of the Australian educational system is that our curriculum is “sort of a mile wide but often an inch deep”. This means that coverage of course material can lack depth and sufficient development of complex reasoning skills and reduce the ability to teach elaboration strategies as opposed to straight memorisation. The term ‘crowded curriculum’ is often used by teachers to describe the current Australian requirements.

When you could still assume that what you learned in school would last a lifetime, teaching content and routine cognitive skills was at the centre of education. Today, with access to Google where routine cognitive skills are being outsourced, and in an era where jobs are changing rapidly, the focus should be on enabling people to become lifelong learners, to manage complex ways of thinking, reasoning and problem-solving.

The curriculum review undertaken at St Catherine’s this past semester also examined our own ‘crowded curriculum’, particularly in Years 7 and 8. Whilst students adjust to a new academic journey and their secondary schooling experience, they are also juggling thirteen different subjects and teachers. Add to this the extensive opportunities offered in the co-curricular programs at School and the result is highly scheduled, busy girls.

The academic profile planned for 2019 and beyond at the School aims to ultimately reduce the curriculum in Years 7 and 8 and to provide a wide range of elective offerings in Year 9 – often considered a time to experiment, challenge and try out new curriculum areas. In Year 10, we intend to connect the academic programs more closely with the VCE subjects by narrowing the curriculum offerings but allocating more time to provide depth of study enabling students to sharpen their focus and to provide an improved platform for the heightened needs of VCE academic programs.

Parents are invited to attend the School Council AGM next Tuesday evening commencing at 7.30pm in the Ballroom when I will present the findings of the Curriculum Review and the planned academic approach for the coming years. This information will also be presented by Mr Robert Marshall at the Subject Selection Evening on Thursday 19 July (First week of Term 3).

A Toast to Barbreck: Wednesday 20 June

Excitement builds as we get ready for the transition into the new Junior School. Next week, the Library books will be moved across and classroom packing will be completed. It is nearly 70 years since students first entered the halls of Barbreck. Many parents will recall walking their daughter to her first day of School in the Barbreck building and the warmth of the morning welcome from Miss Anne Smith or Mrs Alana Moor. Old Girls treasure their fond memories of the privilege of graduating to Year 6 with the much anticipated opportunity to sit on the Red Steps during Assembly, the joy of playing in the old tram or swinging on play equipment under the shade of the pine trees reaching over the back fence.

St Catherine’s community members, Old Girls, Teachers, current and past Barbreck parents are invited to attend the final Toast to Barbreck on the evening of Wednesday, 20 June. The evening will commence with a guided tour of the new Junior School building at 6.00pm, followed by the celebratory Toast to Barbreck 6.30-7.30pm.

All are welcome to bid a final farewell to this much-loved building before the decommissioning and demolition commences just five days later! RSVP for both the guided tour of the new building and for the Toast to Barbreck is essential.